By AYO AROWOLO
While I was reflecting on my 60th birthday yesterday, especially after reading the endless flow of goodwill messages from people, it just dawned on me that apart from God who has continued to hide me under his wings and shield, the real people who should be celebrated are those individuals who stood behind the scenes to ensure I was not consumed by raging waters of life. So in the process, I came with the list of 60 people God had lined up on my path to assist me to this very point I am now.
MY TOP 10 DESTINY HELPERS
On the top 10 of that list is Tim Akano (I call him KAYODE), a friend since 1989 two years after we both graduated from the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife.
Many people on both the THISDAY LIFE LESSONS and WEALTH IN HIS PRESENCE, ( two of the whatsApp platforms I created ) know Tim as “professor” and “mystery writer” on account of his highly cerebral articles regularly dished out.
I was with Prince Yemisi SHYLLON, (a friend of over 25 years and one of the prominent members of the THISDAY LIFE LESSONS platform ) in his house two Thursdays ago. The first question he asked was: Who is that Tim Akano? He is a damned good writer’.
Tim, not a trained journalist nor an established author, has worked himself into the consciousness of many Nigerians through his seminal articles, which sometimes stretch into several pages. Yet his admirers consume them once they get hold of them.
A BIG TEST CASE FOR MY NEW RESOLVE
One other individual on the top 10 of my 60 destiny helpers was my former lecturer at the department of Political Science between 1983 and 1986 , Professor OYE OGUNBADEJO, who apart from being my project supervisor , also did other things that made his name to remain permanently in my memory.
Around January last year , I got to know that he was seriously sick. His junior brother was a senior cartoonist with THISDAY.
I was able to get his contact after many searches and checks with some of my colleagues who were his students then.
I got him on phone after several attempts and he tried to explain the nature of his sickness to me .
The seriousness of the ailment was not immediately obvious as the prof during our conversations, was always as jovial as he used to be while he was in classes with us at ife .
Apart from sending some amount to him from time to time , I also tried to reach out to some of my classmates then who were also his students, to throw in their support. Among those who responded was TUNDE Oluwatudimu, a retiring director of NTA. He collected his account number and sent in his widows mite which the prof promptly reported back to me. I tried to reach other colleagues at Ife then some of who are now prominent Nigerians in different areas of endearvours but the responses from them were not encouraging .
I WANTED TO SEE THINGS FOR MYSELF
We kept communicating . But in October last year , I decided to take a step further to see things myself.
On October 1, 2023 , I attended the 40th (1983) reunion meeting of my former secondary school, Gbongan ODEOMU Anglican Grammer School, GOAGS, Gbongan held in Ibadan: ( see some of the photos at the event)
October 1 was a Sunday. While in Lagos, I had communicated my plan to visit him at Ile Ife in the company of my videographer and a reporter. I had also asked him to send me his drug list. I told a friend who is a mutual friend of Tim and I about my mission to Ife. Immediately, he wired N100,000 to me. I added it to the money I had put together and headed straight to the shop of a pharmacist friend who also happened to be a great Ife. I added my friends money to the one I had set aside and bought all the drugs on the list except the ones that were not available.
Mission accomplished in the afternoon of October 2nd, I headed straight to Ile Ife with my driver and my team to the address described to me by my lecturer.
I planned to interview him and get his story published in my column in THISDAY and also possibly share it with my colleague at Arise Television for possible use.
But what I saw on arrival broke my heart. My once ebullient lecturer was in a terrible state. He had been paralysed and had not been able to move from his bed for three years. He lost his wife in the process. Even though he sounded very jovial, I was convinced there was trouble.
I had to abandon the original plan of interviewing him and putting him on camera; I simply handed over his drugs to him and also mentioned the contribution of my friend, who had insisted I should leave out his name. I headed back to my hotel room in Ibadan in a very depressed mood. I kept asking myself questions: what went wrong? Did he not have a pension contribution? Why would a lecturer who left a lucrative lecturing job in the United States to serve his country would be left to decay by the same country he had served diligently?
Why? I could not come up with any reasonable answers on my own. So, I asked my former lecturer to document what happened and share it with me. Here is what he sent:
HOW SUCCESSIVE GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIAN DESTROY THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM AND LEAVE THE LECTURERS IN RUINS AND PENURY
PART OF MY FORMER LECTURERS STORY
“Regarding post-retirement finance, this can be unstable and unpredictable, depending on the prevailing circumstances.
Here, I will use my experience as a case study. I retired under the OLD PENSION SCHEME in June 2007.
Before that date, the general impression that was often given to the academic staff was that once a lecturer had 15 years of experience as a professor, he would be entitled to full benefits for life.
The new pension scheme that replaced the old pension arrangement is contributory, while the old one was non-contributory.
Given this reality, several professors felt it was in their interest to retire before the new contributory pension came into force, especially if they had put in the required 15 years of service.
In my case, I had over 20 years of experience, having attained the full professorial position on October 1, 1984. It took quite a while for me to complete the detailed clearance formalities from the various key units of the university.
When the relevant papers were signed, I took part in the appropriate verification exercise with all the stipulated documents. Thereafter, I was approved for pension entitlements. I did not realise in time that my university had, through its remissness, placed me in the NEW PENSION SCHEME, to which I did not belong. I pointed out the obvious error to the Vice Chancellor, who took up the issue. Eventually, in 2015, he directed the university bursar to regularise my status, by placing me in the OLD NON-CONTRIBUTORY PENSION SCHEME.
Kindly note, for emphasis, the date of the directive, namely 2015.
Due to some tardiness and unbridled incompetence, the Vice Chancellors instruction was never implemented. In the meantime, since I did not belong to the NEW PENSION SCHEME, the monthly pension payments soon ran out.
Embarrassed, marooned, and astonished beyond measure, I took the case up with the sitting Vice Chancellor. He said he was new on the job and would like to study the case.
Although the University Pension Desk Officer, pointed out to him that insofar as much backlog of unpaid arrears was involved, the Bursar should calculate what I ought to have received under the old system, deduct what I had received under the wrongly placed scheme, and restore me fully to my normal OLD PENSION SCHEME.
The Bursar argued that the case could not be resolved locally and that he would have to go to Abuja to table the case for necessary and appropriate directives. Amazingly, if not disingenuously, he argued that the university had no funds to sponsor such a trip. At that point, I volunteered to raise the required funds to sponsor the said trip, to enable the university to resolve the issue.
From that point onwards, the vice chancellor began to avoid me and some of the notable former colleagues who had developed an interest in the case. Reportedly, he had told these senior colleagues that insofar as his immediate predecessor had been arrested by the EFCC, for awarding himself a generous unprocessed furniture allowance, he would not want to take my case to Abuja, apparently sensing that the gross negligence of the university over my case might be exposed.
In the event, all pleadings from all quarters that he should accept my offer to sponsor the bursar to take the case to Abuja for resolution failed, and no action was taken on the issue throughout his tenure in office.
Needless to say, once I was no longer getting pension payments, it became increasingly difficult for me to meet the basic necessities of life, including the procurement of ESSENTIAL MEDICATIONS.
It was at this juncture of severe lack and dire straits, that my father in the Lord, along with a few dedicated friends and former students, began to assist me in doing some of the critical and essential things.
Looking back with hindsight, I always feel so pained in my heart that after serving the country creditably and meritoriously for over thirty years, including over 20 years as a full professor, in one of the leading federal universities, I have been abandoned in old age, to be sourcing for assistance and support from well-wishers.
This is a very sad commentary on how the country treats its university staff in retirement. In essence, the life lesson is that staff in public universities should begin in earnest to prepare for retirement about 10 years ahead, and not be deceived by the rosy picture that once one has served and retired as a professor, he would live happily thereafter. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is high-level propaganda by successive governments akin to a futile quest to put credibility on the tales of the Arabian Nights.
Speaking from experience then, post-retirement finance could serve as a testimony of human resilience and the ability to thrive even in the most challenging circumstances.
HIS CURRENT STATE
I later learnt that his condition got worse and he had to be evacuated to Lagos late last November into the residence of his eldest daughter, who is now saddled with the responsibility of caring for her dad. The last contact I had with the daughter was when I got my assistant to get the remaining part of his drug supply to him, and I have also linked him with my pharmacist friend who now supplies his drugs on request.
WHY I HAD TO TAKE EXTRA INTEREST IN MY FORMER LECTURER
During one of our conversations, my former lecturer wanted to know why I had taken more than keen interest in his predicament. Here was my reply in a whatsApp chat after he had provided me with more information on his drug requirement.
YOU IMPACTED MY LIFE SIR
“Very many thanks for the information provided . I am excited that you are still in high spirit .
In addition to the small token am sending , I will also like you to share with me:
1. The names of your regular drugs . I intend to get some of them in Lagos while coming to you in Ife.
2. Let me also know if you have HMO that takes care of your health insurance . If you dont, let me know so that I can make general arrangement .
3. Even though we have been chatting online and I am reasonably persuaded that you are generally in top form , I cannot claim to know your state of health in reality . So when I come , I will be able to ascertain what else you need and I will be able to mobilize my other fellow old students to make them happen.
HERE IS WHY IAM INTEREESTED IN YOUR CONDITION SIR
“You may not fully understand the impact you made on my life while at Ife”.
“I remember the day you got to know that I was a junior brother to PROFESSOR OLADELE AROWOLO, you got so excited and ran to Dr Yomi Durotoyes office with me and exclaimed: ‘do you know Ayo is Deles junior brother?’ From that time I became close to the two of you and you volunteered to be my supervisor for my final year project which was on the Modakeke and Ife conflicts.
You may also not remember that when I was in my final semester I missed one of the papers as I did not know the time had been changed to an earlier time . Dr. Bode Alalade was the course lecturer . So while I was reading in Fajuyi hall preparing for my exam my colleagues were already writing the exams. I missed that paper even though I had the best result in the continuous assessment .
When you got to know as the head of our department you rose up in my DEFENCE, did a letter to the Dean giving reasons why I must be allowed to write the paper immediately including the fact that I was your best graduating part four student in the department ( the political science had given me a prize for that). But inspite of your efforts and for reasons I later found out to be divinely orchestrated ( I will share this when I come) I still missed graduating with my colleagues . So I did an extra semester and it was while preparing for my reseat that God ordered my steps into journalism as I started writing for papers while in the campus after reading an article in the NEWSWATCH written by DELE Olojede who is also from Modakeke and whose father incidentally was a business partner to my dad who was a building contractor to the government of Western Nigeria.
Journalism has taken me to different parts of the world including being a US Scholar that took me to seven states in the United States of America in 1996 . and Reuters Award winner which also took me to the Reuters office in London in 1999 where I joined other financial journalists from different parts of the world to be trained on financial reporting for three weeks. I have attached my profile for you to see what the Lord has done with my life.
More importantly , you drew me closer to God and spirituality when you introduced me to the Christian Science Monitor by sharing with me some of their literature .
I have taken time to explain this length to let you know the impact your intervention made in my life.
So whatever I am now able to do from now on should be seen as my own small attempt to pay back your acts of kindness.
I pray that Jehovah will now begin to intervene in your health situation and give you supernatural healing .
So far”
MY PLAN: INITIATING PROF OYE OGUNBADEJO RESCUE FUND
As part of my 60th birthday celebration, I am opening an account with which we will mobilise funds to take care of my ailing lecturer.
I am asking all my friends, who believe in me, to join in and let us make it happen.
The fundraising will be coordinated by Fund Quest, a fund management company managed by my good friend, Bisi Oni, a friend of over 20 years, who is also an advisor on both the LLS and WIHP platforms.
Fund Quest will create the account and share the details here. 100% of the funds raised will go to rescuing my former lecturer.
All donations will be acknowledged. We are also involving his daughter as a signatory. I will share here as events unfold on the project.
I am putting in my own N50,000 immediately to kick-start the fundraising process.
Since we are still working out the exact amount required, if you are interested in being part of this project, all you need to do at this stage is to send this note to me privately on WhatsApp (+2348086447494):
“AA, I AM INTERESTED IN BEING PART OF THE PROF OYE OGUNBADEJOS FUNDRAISING PROJECT. PLEASE CONTACT ME FOR MY CONTRIBUTION WHEN IT IS SET. THANK YOU.”
I trust that together; we can make it happen. Thank you in advance.
MY PRAYER FOR THOSE WHO WOULD BE PART OF THIS PROJECT
My prayer is that as you step out , through your contribution, to rescue a fellow human being from destruction, God will line helpers in your path on any areas you may need interventions. So shall it be.
Shalom
AA
March 5, 2024 ( shared 5:12 a.m)
